What ADO.NET Teaches Us about Custom Objects

I have met very few developers or development teams who prefer ADO.NET objects to custom objects. Similarly, many are writing their own custom data access layers. This should convey a loud and clear message to Microsoft and other software vendors: ADO.NET is great, but developers prefer custom objects. So, why not give us more technologies that help us build software the way we actually build software?

I can't answer the last question, but I can tell you how to consistently take the guesswork out of building database-centric applications (which account for something like 80 percent of applications). How? Well, believe it or not, Microsoft's ADO.NET pattern shows how.